Ohio Country

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As Ohio Country ("Ohio area") in the 18th and 19th centuries, the country west of the Appalachians on the upper reaches of the Ohio River and its source rivers such as the Monongahela and the Allegheny River was referred to. To the north, the Ohio area extended to Lake Erie , and to the west to about the Miami River . It comprised the area of ​​today's American state Ohio , eastern Indiana , and the areas of Pennsylvania and West Virginia to the west of the Appalachians . Both France and Great Britain claimed ownership of the land in the 17th and 18th centuries . The rivalry between the colonial powers soon led to conflicts and the outbreak of the French and Indian War (1754–1763). With the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1763, the war ended and England took sole control of the Ohio area.

Although the French were defeated, the British now faced numerous Indian tribes as opponents, including the Shawnee , Mingo , Wyandot , Delaware and many others who opposed the invasion of the white settlers. To prevent further bloodshed and reduce the immense spending on the military, the British Parliament issued the Royal Proclamation of 1763 . In it, the colonists were forbidden to settle west of the Appalachians and thus provided one of the causes that led to the American War of Independence.

Colonial times

French and British forts in the Ohio area during the French and Indian War

In the mid-17th century, the area north of the Ohio River was inhabited by the Algonquin- speaking Shawnee. Around 1660, during the Beaver Wars , the Iroquois took control of the Ohio Territory, drove out the Shawnee and united with the Erie . After that, the area remained uninhabited for decades and was mainly used as a hunting ground by the Iroquois.

The pressure of the white colonists to expand around 1720 forced more and more Indian groups to move west and into the Ohio area. In what is now western Pennsylvania, the Delaware established their main village Kittanning on the Allegheny River , one of the headwaters of the Ohio. Groups of the scattered Shawnee also returned to the Ohio area. On the flight from the fighting between the French and British south of Lake Ontario , members of the Seneca and other Iroquois tribes also reached the Ohio. After the outbreak of the French and Indian War, the tribes in the Ohio area initially remained neutral, but later they sided with the French. Armed and supplied by France, they traveled west along the Kitanning Path and raided British settlers east of the Allegheny Mountains . After the destruction of Fort Granville in the summer of 1756, the Shawnee villages to the west of the Alleghenys were attacked by Lieutenant Colonel John Armstrong . The French lost the war and were driven out of Fort Duquesne , which the British rebuilt as Fort Pitt , later the city of Pittsburgh .

With the Royal Proclamation of 1763, the Ohio area belonged to the huge Indian reservation that stretched from the Appalachians in the east to the Mississippi in the west and from Newfoundland in the north to Florida in the south. The mostly French settlers across the border were instructed to leave the area or to obtain special permits.

American Revolution and the Consequences

The Ohio Territory and Skirmishes between Indians and United States forces between 1775 and 1811.

Despite the new law, border residents from Pennsylvania and Virginia continued to cross the Allegheny Mountains, leading to increased conflicts with the Shawnee. The Shawnee called the white Grenzer long knives , which caused them to switch to the British side during the American Revolutionary War. After the peace treaty in the Treaty of Paris, the Ohio area became part of the United States and immediately opened for settlement. War veterans , in particular , who were given preferential land allocation, were among the first settlers beyond the Appalachians.

Originally, a number of eastern states made territorial claims in this region, the Illinois area was administered by Virginia as a county with headquarters in Kaskaskia . These claims were gradually abandoned in exchange for debt repayment by the federal government. Connecticut was the last state to give up its claims to an area around Lake Erie , the so-called Western Reserve, in 1800 .

A number of treaties between the Americans and Indians, such as the Treaties of Fort McIntosh in 1785 and Fort Harmar in 1789, redefined the boundaries of Indian land. Some tribes, including the Shawnee, Mingo and Delaware, did not give up resistance to the white invaders, which led to the Northwest Indian War (1785–1795).

By 1800, many Shawnee had traded their lands in Ohio and Indiana for territories in Missouri . Nevertheless, there was more conflict between Indians and white settlers in the War of 1812 under Tecumseh culminated. By 1817 almost all Indians had left the areas east of the Mississippi.

In 1787, the United States Congress passed the Northwest Ordinance , a law that determined the boundaries and distribution of the newly acquired region. Virginia got land south of the Ohio River and Pennsylvania got the areas around the headwaters of the Ohio. The rest of the land west of the Pennsylvania border and north of the Ohio became part of the newly formed Northwest Territory . It was the first territory in the United States, had its own government, and was under the jurisdiction of Congress.

The Northwest Ordinance forbade slavery in the Northwest Territory and offered the territory the prospect of becoming a future state in the Union. On February 19, 1803, Ohio became the first part of the Northwest Territory to become the new state of the USA.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Francis Jennings: The Ambiguous Iroquois Empire . Norton, New York 1984. pp. 351-352; Michael N. McConnell: A Country Between: The Upper Ohio Valley and Its Peoples, 1724-1774 . University of Nebraska Press, Lincoln 1992. pp. 5-7.
  2. ^ Ohio History